Ralf Rangnick answered the question with the absolute certainty of a man who considers himself the smartest person in the room. Would he sign Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi?
‘Absolutely not,’ he replied. ‘We have a wage cap. And they’re too old….’ This was in 2016, when Ronaldo was 30 not 36. ‘We have our own philosophy and it wouldn’t work.’
The new interim manager of Manchester United perhaps could not have imagined back then that he would one day be asked to coach Ronaldo.
It always seemed unlikely that a maverick such as Rangnick would end up at an establishment club such as Real Madrid, Barcelona or even Manchester United, where the global superstars tend to play and where coaching recruitment is somewhat more conservative.